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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
Siddhivinicchiyal are mentioned as texts which glorified the religion and philosophy of the Jainas. The Sammati mentioned in the NC. is the same as Sanmati sütra, also known as Sanmatitarka or Sanmatiprakarana composed by Acārya Siddhasena Divākara in circa 550-600 A. D.2 It was a famous philosophical treatise which afforded a comparative study of the different Brāhmanic and Buddhist systems of philosophy and their criticism from the Jaina point of view.s
A controversy exists regarding the authorship of the Siddhivinicchiya. According to certain scholars, it should be identified with Siddhiviniscaya, the famous treatise composed by Akalanka. Its mention in the Nišitha Cūrni (A. D. 676 ) has been taken by these scholars as a deciding factor for determining the date of Akalanka. According to others, Siddhivinicchiya mentioned in the NC. was a composition of Ācārya Śivaswami, and was different from the Siddhiviniscaya of Akalanka. It is, however, difficult to reach at any conclusion in the absence of proper evidences, Brāhmaṇic Literature
Vedas or Śruti—The ancient Vedic literature has been mentioned as Śruti or revealed literature. It must have comprised the four Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanişads. The learned Brāhmaṇas are described to have been versed in the four Vedas ( câuvejja ), and they had grasped the abstruse meaning of the Vedas ( Vedarahassa ).? Bāņa, 8 Yuan Chwang as well as I-Tsing also say that a regular impartation
1. NC. 1, p. 162. 2. Sec-Sanmati prakarana, Jñānodaya Trust, Ahmedabad. 3. Jain, J. P., Jain Sources of the History of Ancient India, pp. 164-66. 4. Ibid., p. 177. 5. See-Sanmatiprakarana, prcface p. 4; Siddhiviņicchiya, preface
p. 53. 6. NC. 3, p. 413; NC. 1, P. 103. 7. NC. 3, p. 527. 8. Hariacarita, p. 71. 9. Watters, op. cit, I, p. 159; Bcal, op. cit., 1, p. 79; sce also-Watters'
remark on Yuan Chwang's account, pp. 157-61. Although Yuan
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